'Taking Back the Town From the Automobile'

WheelChange, an advocate for new, smart multi-modal transportation systems, asserts that a more sustainable future of personal transportation could be based on communications technology, smaller vehicles, and sharing. On their website, they write:

By enabling a diverse set of existing and new transportation options to work together to allow an individual access to their city, one could think of this smart multi-mobility future as being a set of stepping stones across a river, while the conventional car ownership model is more like the large and heavy bridge.

It is the brainchild of Dan Sturges, a Colorado-based transportation designer and entrepreneur.

The video below, produced by Sturges, is a very clever and fun animation of how such a system could be deployed as a tool in reforming sprawl into smarter, walkable communities. Enjoy!

About the Author

Kaid Benfield is the director of the Sustainable Communities and Smart Growth program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, co-founder of the LEED for Neighborhood Development rating system, and co-founder of Smart Growth America.